40 Acres Sports

As Brian already noted in the “Quick Hits” section, Adrian Alaniz has come to terms with the Washington Nationals. Adrian will be signing a contract on Friday when he reports for his Minor League assignment and will not be back for his senior year.

The Statesman also reported that seniors Nick Peoples and Chance Wheeless had signed with their respective drafting teams (the Cardinals and Diamondbacks).

I heard Coach Garrido on the radio this morning say that undrafted seniors Brett Lewis and Chais Fuller have also been offered contracts by Major League teams; he did not say which teams, however.

Adrian Alaniz won’t be back for his senior season, he will sign with Washington Nationals this week and be in single A ball soon.

A couple of quick notes. Texas signee Brandon Workman (rhp, Bowie HS) was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft. [tag]Kyle Russell[/tag] and [tag]Bradley Suttle[/tag] were drafted in the 4th round. They only got through the first 5 rounds of the draft yesterday; more Horns will be drafted today.

Major League Baseball has changed their “draft and follow” rule. In the past, a team could draft a player and then take up to 51 weeks to sign him…and no other team could come knockin’ on the door during those 51 weeks. So, they could draft a player, encourage him to play another year of college ball, watch his progress, and then decide. All the while safe in the knowledge that if they wanted to sign the player, they had a year to do so. The new rule states that the teams only have until August 15th to sign a player, except for college seniors. I think the change will mean more draftees from the later rounds will go ahead and sign. But, maybe not. Some people think the rule change will mean that teams will draft fewer players. The draft goes 50 rounds. In the past, 4 or 5 teams would drop out as the draft got into the later rounds. But, most would draft all the way through to the end since teams had so long to evaluate talent. The new rule may mean they won’t bother drafting some players they would’ve drafted in the past.

If I’m able, I’ll update this post as the draft progresses today.

Update (2 pm). [tag]Randy Boone[/tag] was drafted in the 7th by Toronto; [tag]Adrian Alaniz[/tag] in the 8th by Washington; signee Taylor Grote (cf, The Woodlands) in the 8th by the Yankees; and signee Runey Davis (cf, Georgetown) in the 11th by Pittsburgh.

Update (5 pm). [tag]James Russell[/tag] was drafted in the 14th by the Cubs; [tag]Joseph Krebs[/tag] in the 14th by Cincinnati; [tag]Chance Wheeless[/tag] in the 17th by Arizona; [tag]Nick Peoples[/tag] (as a second baseman, apparently) in the 19th by St. Louis; and signee Kevin Keyes (rf, Connally HS) in the 26th by the Rangers.

Update (6 pm). [tag]Preston Clark[/tag] was drafted in the 33rd by the Cubs; [tag]Kenn Kasparek[/tag] (who was recovering from Tommy John surgery and did not play this year) in the 34th by Washington; signee Garrett Clyde (rhp, San Jacinto College) in the 43rd by the Cubs; signee Cameron Rupp (c, Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano) in the 43rd by Pittsburgh; and [tag]Clay Van Hook[/tag] in the 45th by Seattle.

Michael Demperio and Josh Prince to transfer. Prince likely would have been next year’s starting shortstop.

Texas won Game 5 (link to full game report on my site) and was playing UC-Irvine in Game 6 when play was suspended due to bad weather. I sat up in the “Home Run Porch” area of the Dell Diamond for much of the evening game and enjoyed watching the lightening storm for a couple of hours before the game was called. Play resumes today at 1 pm with Texas trailing 5-6 in the bottom of the 7th. If (ahem…when) the Horns prevail, that will force a 7th game which will start approximately 50 minutes after the conclusion of Game 6.

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to post more but the long days are wearing me out. By the time I get home, I just want to sleep! And, yesterday? Geesh. It was 100 degrees (or hotter) in the sun during the afternoon game. And, we were all pretty much stuck in the sun. When the thunderstorms rolled in, it actually got rather cold. And, since we’d all been out in the 100-degree weather, we weren’t really prepared for such. It was a long day.

Texas lost to UC-Irvine this evening 1-3. There were two main factors in the loss: (1) the Horns ran up against a pitcher (Scott Gorgen) who threw a whale of a game and (2) the UCI center fielder (Ollie Linton) made two amazing catches that took extra-base hits away from the Horns (both plays, by sad coincidence, robbed Russell Moldenhauer of hits). Looking at the boxscore, you might think errors played a part in the loss as well. But, they really didn’t. Only one of the errors led to a run. Nope. The main problem was that pitcher and the fact that Texas could not string two hits together to save their lives. The only inning in which the Horns did get more than one hit was the 6th. It started off when Chance Wheeless flew out to lf. Bradley Suttle followed that up with a single. Then, Russell Moldenhauer flew out to the lf/cf gap. That was one of those hits stolen by the center fielder. Suttle would’ve definitely ended up at 3b on the play…he might well have scored. And, Moldenhauer would’ve been standing on 2b with 1 out. Instead, Suttle was still at 1b with 2 outs. Nick Peoples then singled through the left side. If runners had been standing on 2b and 3b, at least one of them would’ve scored on that single. But that’s not what happened. And, Chais Fuller followed that up with a ground out to 3b. Which should’ve been the 2nd out of the inning. But, Linton made that catch. And, Texas did not score.

Adrian Alaniz got the start and took the loss. He did not pitch one of his “wow” games but he was not bad. He went 6.2 innings and gave up 3 runs (1 unearned) on 6 hits with 2 walks, 1 hit batter, and 7 (!) strikeouts. Normally, that would be more than good enough for Texas to win a game. But not today.

So, now what? Wake Forest beat Brown 4-2 in the early game today so now Texas will face Wake Forest in an elimination game at noon tomorrow. If (ahem…when) they win that, they’ll have to turn around and beat UCI at 6. And, then they’ll have to beat UCI again at 1 o’clock on Monday afternoon.

Texas was in the same position in 2005. After losing the 2nd game of the Austin Regional that year, they turned around and won three games. They then lost the first game of the Super Regional in Oxford, Mississippi, before going on to win the Super Regional to move on to the College World Series. And, then they…you know…won the College World Series. So, it can be done. The Longhorns have done it. Here’s hoping they can do it again!

Texas beat Brown 8-2 last night. Brown put up a heck of a fight and the Bears had the lead going into the bottom of the 6th. But, they couldn’t hold the Horns’ offense off. James Russell started for the Horns but struggled so was replaced by Joseph Krebs who got the win, improving his record to 9-1. Randy Boone threw the final 1.2 innings to get his 14th save of the year. Normally, when you see a score like that (8-2) you don’t see someone get a save. But, the Horns were only up 4-2 when Boone entered the game. Kyle Russell and Chais Fuller hit home runs last night and Travis Tucker went 4-for-4 with a double and a run scored.

As usual, see my page for a full game report.

By the way, UC-Irvine jumped all over Wake Forest in the first game of the day, winning 13-0. So, Wake Forest and Brown play the early game at noon. Texas faces UC-Irvine in the winner’s bracket at 6.

Texas was chosen as the #4 National Seed and will host UC-Irvine, Wake Forest, and Brown. I did a quick check and UT has never played UC-Irvine or Brown. The Horns did meet Wake Forest…back in 1949. The Horns beat Wake Forest twice in the 3rd College World Series to win the Horns’ first National Championship. No meetings since then. I’m very excited to be seeing new teams come to town. Stanford and UT-Arlington came to town last year. The winner of our Regional will meet the winner of the Wichita State Regional (Arizona, Oral Roberts, and New Orleans are the other teams in that tourney).

Other Big 12 teams to make the tournament:

• Missouri (hosting Miami, Louisville, and Kent State)
• Texas A&M (hosting Louisiana-Lafayette, Ohio State, and Le Moyne)
• Baylor (#3 seed at Rice, with TCU and Prairie View)
• Nebraska (#3 seed at Arizona State, with UC-Riverside and Monmouth)
• Oklahoma State (#3 seed at Arkansas, with Creighton and Albany)

Here’s how the Big 12 stands (sorted by RPI as of May 27th):

It’s rather surprising that Oklahoma didn’t make it into the tournament. They’re the highest RPI team that did not get in. (Georgia Tech at 28 and Kansas State at 35 are the next two.) I’m very puzzled at OSU getting in over OU. Yes, OSU did better in the regular season but were swept at the tourney and their RPI is a lot lower. Very odd. And, over their last 10 games, OU went 6-4…while OSU went 4-6, losing the last 6! Is someone from OSU on the NCAA selection committee? ‘Makes you wonder.

Update. Thanks to Ruby for pointing out an error in the table above. Oops.

(Cross-posted to my page.)

Texas beat [tag]Nebraska[/tag] 5-4 this afternoon. Since the Aggies had won their game earlier in the day, the Horns knew they were out of the hunt for a spot in the Championship Game. I saw some chatter on different sites saying the Horns should throw the game so the Aggies couldn’t make it, either. If you ask me, throwing a game is always a bad idea. And, there’s no way in the world Coach Garrido would allow one of his teams to do such a thing. Can you imagine? People are funny.

Anyway, the Horns played well enough. Adrian Alaniz got the nod and did not have his best outing of the year. He gave up 3 runs (1 unearned) in 3 innings on 4 hits (all singles) with 1 strikeout, 1 walk, and 1 hit batter. Austin Wood replaced Adrian on the mound at the start of the 4th and sat down the first 11 batters he saw. Wow. The 12th batter reached on an error by Chais Fuller at ss. Chais had lost a ball in the sun in the first inning and then let one roll under his glove in the 7th; rather uncharacteristic for Chais. When the 4th batter of the 7th reached on an infield single, the Horns sent Randy Boone to the mound and he got the next batter to fly out to cf to end the threat. He struggled a bit in the 8th, though. After getting a couple of quick outs, he gave up back-to-back singles. On the 2nd hit, Kyle Russell tried to scoop up the ball and throw in one motion. Sadly, he missed the ball, ran past it a bit, and could not gather it up. The runner from 2b scored and the batter reached 2b. Randy then walked the next two batters to load the bases! Ack. The next batter hit a high-bouncer right in front of the plate that Preston Clark fielded; he stepped on home plate to end the inning. Nebraska argued that the ball was foul to no avail.

Texas scored one in the 1st, one in the 2nd (a solo shot by Preston Clark, his 8th dinger of the year), and 2 in the 3rd (when Jordan Danks and Kyle Russell reached on back-to-back walks and then both scored). Luckily, they scored a 5th run in the top of the 8th when Chance Wheeless reached on a single and was driven home a few batters later on a 2-out single by Chais Fuller.

The Horns made a few mental errors and have some things they need to work on before the Regional starts on Friday. But, they also did some things very well. Austin Wood had a great outing on the mound and got the win. Chance Wheeless went 4-for-4 with 2 driven in and a run scored. Jordan Danks went 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored. And Chais Fuller managed to do well at the plate, despite his fielding problems, going 2-for-4 with a run driven in.

As usual, more details are available on the game report on my page.

Texas lost (3-7) to Texas A&M this afternoon. The Aggies made an interesting decision to start Kirkland Rivers. He’s mainly been used in short relief this season. He did a great job, though, holding the Horns to 3 runs on 7 hits over 6.2 innings. When he looked like he was getting into trouble in the 4th, the Aggies made no move to replace him. And, the decision paid off. Keith Moorland was completely dumbfounded by the fact that he kept going back to the mound as the game wore on. When the Aggies finally replaced him in the 7th, they sent Kyle Nicholson to the mound. Nicholson has been the Aggies’ most reliable starter all year. He did close out some games early in the season, though, so that move wasn’t quite as unprecedented. Nicholson faced 7 Texas batters. Not a single one reached base.

Texas, meanwhile, sent James Russell to the mound. He got into trouble in the 5th when the Aggies started things off with back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases. James struck the 4th batter out looking and we all let our breath out a little bit. He hit the next on the knee, though, to score the tying run. The 5th batter fouled out to Bradley Suttle at 3b and we relaxed just a wee bit more. Sadly, Craig Stinson hit the first pitch he saw over the lf fence for a grand slam which gave the Aggies a 6-2 lead. James actually pitched a good game after that, although he did give up one more home run (a solo shot) in the 5th. Keith Shinaberry pitched a scoreless 7th and Pat McCrory did the same in the 8th.

As Coach Garrido pointed out in the post-game show, when the Horns had the bases loaded with two outs, they failed to execute. When the Aggies had the same chance, they executed in a big way. And, that made all the difference.

The Horns are concentrating their efforts on managing the pitching in an effort to have the ideal set up when the Regional comes around next weekend. They’d like to win the Big 12 Tournament but are focusing more on where they want to be next weekend. On the one hand, I like that they’re looking ahead. On the other hand, they’ve played “one inning at a time” all year long. Changing philosophies late in the season makes me a little nervous.

As usual, more details available in the game report on my page.